How Marketers Use Big Data To Prey On The Poor

A report published Wednesday by the Senate Commerce Committee says that data brokers are targeting poor consumers by grouping them based on their financial vulnerability.

According to the report, marketers who purchase this data then use the information to sell risky financial products to the people who can least afford them.

Though marketers often argue that consumer data is necessary to make advertising relevant to customers’ interests and preferences, the Committee report said the nine data collection companies it reviewed sort people into less benign categories like “Rural and Barely Making It,” “Ethnic Second-City Strugglers,” and “Credit Crunched: City Families.”